When I meditate I am laying flat on my back in the bed and it is very quiet. If you have an iPad you can download some free meditation AP's. I like the ones that talk to you in a soothing voice and some of them have intermittent soft music. I have a CD at home that I will give you the name of when I get back into town in a few weeks. I'm glad your willing to give it a try again.
I've done it for over a decade. It was Very Hard at first, took me several days before I could settle down and feel I was starting to do it usefully. There are a variety of methods and you may need to experiment a fair bit with what works and is comfortable for you. For me:
- I set an electronic timer to go at the end (so I don't need to worry about how long I've been at it, my preferred duration has come to be 22 minutes); once I got the hang of it, I find the time will fly by when I really needed a session
- choose a quiet, very comfortable setting, (I just sit in a laz-y-boy chair with the leg extension up, but more ambitious souls get into the classic legs crossed sitting on the floor position -- too much muscle tension for me to use that approach)
- I like to have something neutral yet lightly engaging to look at, and what's worked well for me used to be a Lava Lamp; but those take nearly two hours to fire up and get working nicely so I started watching DVDs of fireplaces and other calming scenes (my favourite's become TV MoodScapes 15 Amazing Environments, described on amazon.com) I don't like having any music going. While I keep my eyes open I'm not actually staring or concentrating on the TV, it's sort of an incidental presence.
- the main objective is to have a decent period of time where you clear your mind (decline to follow any thoughts that might pop up), and if you must concentrate on something, concentrate on your breathing and try to keep it slow and even
I've been doing this often enough, that I've become well practiced and can get in a session now pretty much anywhere that's reasonably quiet.